Tributes to a dedicated Forest Service officer — and grief at losing a friend — adorn an Internet memorial book dedicated to Kristine Fairbanks, who was killed in the line of duty Sept. 20.
Officer Down Memorial Page, a national nonprofit organization that honors fallen law enforcement officers, dedicated a page to the K-9 officer who was fatally shot at the age of 51, leaving behind her husband, Brian, a 15-year-old daughter, Whitney, and her father, John Willits of Port Angeles, a retired Peninsula College forestry professor.
The page can be found at www.odmp.org/reflections.php?oid=19566.
Tributes on the Internet memorial page come from all over — New York, Texas, North Carolina, San Francisco, Tennessee, New Jersey, Missouri.
Grief is closer to home.
“Kris, I’m going to miss your smile and your willingness to always help,” Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said.
“You were a kind and gentle warrior and we will never forget you. Rest in peace, good and faithful servant, rest in peace.”
“I will miss her laugh,” wrote Ed Whitaker, who signed himself as “retired national park ranger, friend, and old supervisor.”
“No one could replicate her high-pitched laugh or wave of profanity coming out of the dark at 0300 on a fire line in Oregon.”
Whitaker wrote that he knew Fairbanks, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service, when she received her first seasonal job with the agency, and that he took her and her husband, Brian Fairbanks, a Fish and Wildlife law enforcement officer, on fire assignments.
“I watched them both grow up into wonderful people who contributed to all around them,” Whitaker said.
“I had the fun of taking Brian, Kris and [daughter] Whitney to Manhattan to see the sights of a different world.
“Now she is gone, taken from us by a sociopath who just couldn’t get his life right.
“Now Whitney has Brian, and Brian has Whitney.
“In the big Western sky, Kris’ spirit lives where ever rivers run wild, animals are free and justice needs to be served.”
Fairbanks was shot at Olympic National Forest’s Dungeness Forks Campground, about six miles south of Sequim, while checking a Dodge van without license plates.
Convicted felon Shawn Matthew Roe of Everett, suspected of that and another fatal shooting Sept. 20, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies later that night.
“To the city of Forks and the family of Officer Kristy Fairbanks,” wrote Ronald and Kathy Miller, who signed themselves Forks homeowners, “you have our deepest sympathy.
“Kristy was well known and loved in the community of Forks and her smiles will be missed by all who knew her.”
Deputy R. Clements of the King County Sheriff’s Office, writing from Seattle, grieved for two fallen officers.
“In the last three weeks, the state of Washington has lost two heroes in the line of duty,” he said, “Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson, former Animal Control officer, on Sept. 2 and Forest Service K-9 Officer Kristine Fairbanks on Sept. 20.”
Jackson was the first victim of a shooting spree that claimed the lives of six people in and around Alger.
Issac Zamora, 28, of Alger has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and four counts of first-degree assault with a firearm or deadly weapon. He is being held in Skagit County jail in lieu of $5 million bail.
“Both of these officers loved animals, and God must of been wanting the best in heaven,” Clements said.
“I know Anne was there to welcome Kristine home, and the two of them will watch over the rest of us as we march on.
“Kristine and Anne will be remembered, and our hearts go out to their family and friends.
“Keep them in your hearts and do something special for the land we live in and the animals they loved.”
